Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Litespeed buy Team Lotus... Malaysia buys litespeed...SepangF1 to be their home

Today it is reported in many media outlets that the Malaysian government along with Naza and Air Asia plus others now own Team Lotus. They will compete in F1 next year. They will be based in Sepang F1Litespeed to use Lotus name for F1 bidhttp://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75903
By Matt Beer Sunday, June 7th 2009, 03:12 GMT

Litespeed has announced that it will use the historic Lotus name for its attempt to enter Formula 1 next season.

Lotus F1 will initially be set up in the RTN centre at Hingham (Norfolk, England), a 50,000 square foot facility most recently used by Bentley for its Le Mans programme.

I am assuming that the (Litespeed) Lotus team is being paid to move to SepangF1 circuit.

It will be the first F1 team based in Malaysia.
The long term view, in my opinion, will be to swap out Litespeed members and replace them with local Team Lotus members.
... Malaysian car manufacture Proton Chairman Nadzmi Salleh shows an F1 racing car model during a press conference at Putrajaya , Malaysia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009.

The following is copied from an associated press article:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJfycDCKhZOjAmCRcO9ge2qadlCwD9ANNU880
Click here to access articleMalaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak held a news conference Tuesday to outline details of what was called the 1Malaysia F1 team.

"The 1Malaysia F1 team is a government and private sector initiative combining the collaborative experience of Proton and Lotus, coupled with world class expertise," a Malaysian government statement said ahead of the news conference.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said the team would integrate Malaysian technical and pit crew, with the future design, research and development, manufacturing and testing conducted near the Malaysian capital. The driving lineup is set to be announced by Oct. 31 from a short list of six candidates.

Najib declined to give investment costs or other details, but said the future design and testing would be conducted in Malaysia.

He said the venture would be a big boost to local automaker Proton, a government-owned company which has suffered in recent years because of increased competition from foreign car makers after the liberalization of the auto market.

"If we want to export Proton we need to establish our brand name so that it is accepted globally," Najib said. "We are determined to do our best to make our mark in this arena."

The investors in the venture are Proton, budget airline AirAsia and Naza Motors, a local auto group.

Najib said the creation of the team is a "natural progression" since Malaysia has hosted a leg of the F1 race since 1999 and national oil company Petronas has been a sponsor of BMW Sauber team for the last four years.

Traditional Lotus supporters will be a little sad that the brand considered as British as bacon and eggs are now firmly based in Malaysia.
F1 will soon see the Lotus brand again. However nasi lemak is probably more appropriate than bacon and eggs!

This development does compliment my MUM project. In earlier times I have tried to set up in SepangF1 when I was based in Malaysia.

A quote from Tony Fernanades:

"It will help brand Malaysia and spur excellence in sports and education," he told AFP.

I have embeded my slideshare presentation. It was initially based around SepangF1.
Click here to get my latest proposal based in Johor.